The following apply to all parts of BZPower - the forums, the blogs, members' profiles, private messages, and anywhere else you interact with other members.

A few notes on BZPower accounts...

Every person is granted one BZPower account. A person is not permitted have more than one account. Administrators have the ability to find out if a person does have additional accounts, and if such is discovered, a penalty can be issued. If you become dissatisfied with your display name, you can change it. The Administration will not ban or delete your account so you can create a new one - behave in such a way that you don't regret the consequences. If you lose access to your account, do not make a new one; simply email the staff and we will work with you to help you regain access.

You are responsible for all actions performed by your account. Keep your password safe and make sure that it is strong. Make sure you log out from BZPower if you're using a computer that is public or shared among family and friends. The Staff will not accept the excuse, 'my brother/my friend/some random stranger did that, not me!' We have no way of easily determining if you are telling the truth, so be prepared to accept the consequences if someone else gains access to your account through a fault of your own.

Registering an account is an acknowledgement that you intend to follow the rules and decorum of the BZPower forum and are legally able to do so. What follows are rules created by the BZPower Administration. The Administration reserves the right to alter, enforce, add, or waive any rules for any specific member at any time.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

BZPower Rules

Respect your fellow members. Time to be cliche: treat others as you wish to be treated. You should not degrade, insult, or make fun of anyone on this site.

Respect the Staff. They have been chosen by the Administration to enforce the rules. You will listen to what they say. If they ask people to stop posting, stop. If they ask you to remove something that is inappropriate, remove it.

Respect BZPower. This is a family-friendly site and the Administration would like to keep it that way. Be respectful of how you talk about the site as a whole and what you post on it.

BZPower does not condone intolerance. If a member treats another member with disdain or contempt because of race, religious preference, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or a similar quality or belief, the member will face administrative action up to and including banning if severe enough.

There is no flaming. Flaming makes for a negative atmosphere and it will not be tolerated. That means you should avoid yelling at and needlessly criticizing other members.

There is no trolling. Trying to force someone into an argument it not allowed.

No pornographic, sexually offensive, sexually explicit, or objectifying material. Sexually suggestive images will be heavily scrutinized. We'd like for our readers to be able to read the forum at work and at home without fear of retribution. If it's not something you'd see walking down the street or in the normal course of public life – don’t use it.

Do not use foul language anywhere on BZPower. We want BZPower to be kept clean, and that includes keeping a clean sounding forum. Most bad words are filtered out, but some have been overlooked. Just because a word is not filtered does not mean it is allowed. If you're not sure if a word or phrase is allowed - don't post it. Additionally, just because you know a word will be filtered does not mean you should use it. If you can't think of a way to say something without swears, don't say it.

No blatantly juvenile toilet humor. Talk about what you do to relieve yourself, although popular (for some odd reason) is not needed here. Please remember this rule especially when posting in the Comedies forum.

Religious sigs, posts, and PMs are not allowed on BZPower. This includes quotes from the Bible, Koran, or other religious publications, as well as statements or sigs such as "Jesus Loves You" or "Proud to be a Christian."

Political sigs, posts, and PMs are not allowed on BZPower. This includes other topics related to politics such as abortion or gun control as well as any statement promoting or insulting certain political ideologies.

Do not bypass the word filter under any circumstances. Many words that are filtered are inappropriate for use on BZPower. Others are links to sites that have inappropriate content that the Administration do not want members to link to. Whatever the word, phrase, or link, if it's in the filter it's there for a reason. That said, attempts to bypass the filter or talking about something that is filtered without direct mentioning it ('that one site') is just as bad as using the filtered word, if not worse. Doing so is grounds for administrative action.

Do not revive old threads. If you want to continue a discussion from an old thread, create a new thread and reference the old one in your opening post. There is a very high turnover rate in membership, and people may not always remember old conversations. Consult the BZPower Forum Revival Reference to see see what is considered 'old' in each forum.

Do not double post. Posting two or more times in a row is not necessary. There is an edit button for all posts you make, and it should be used. Double posting is a waste of bandwidth, and the rule against it will be heavily enforced. There are exceptions to this in certain forums. Be sure to thoroughly read each forum's rules before you even consider double posting.

Post in the right forum. If it's about the Tahu Stars set, post it in the Bionicle Sets and Collectibles forum. Even if it's only humor, an observation, or angst, if it's about something that we have a forum for, post it there. Resist the temptation to post something off topic because you think you'll get "better responses" in a particular forum. We know there are a lot a forums and it can be confusing to choose the right one to post in. If you are unsure, consult a Forum Leader, Forum Assistant, or Forum Mentor.

Use descriptive subject lines and research your post. This reduces the chances of double-posting, and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Also, scan the subjects of the last several days' posts to make sure you aren't duplicating posts. Also, consider what forum your topic should be posted in. If you think something you want to post may have been discussed before, search for it!

Do not post a topic with partial information. Don't post a topic with only part of the point you want to make and state that you will post the rest of your thought later or when a certain amount of people reply. That's a form of spamming and is not allowed.

Do not post if you have nothing to add. If you don't know the answer to a question or have nothing to add to a discussion - DON'T POST. This is considered spam and will result in your posts getting deleted. Repeated offenses may result in administrative action.

Don't say, 'close if dupe.' Other similar phrases include, 'move if in wrong forum,' or, 'if not allowed...' The staff know how to close and move topics as needed. If you're not sure if something is a duplicate, search. If you think it might be in the wrong forum, ask someone. If you think it's not allowed, you probably shouldn't post it.

Don't say, 'first to post.' That phrase will be filtered. This goes for 'second to post,' etc. These kinds of messages are spam and will not be tolerated.

All images posted on BZPower must be 500 kilobytes (kB) in size or smaller. BZPower's forum software will automatically resize very large images so they don't require users to scroll left and right to see them. This does not, however, affect the filesize of the images. Often such images are multiple megabytes (MB) in size, and several of them can cause pages to load slowly, even for people with fast broadband connections. There are many image editors out there that can be used to crop and resize images to reduce filesize. If you absolutely must share an image greater that 500 kB, link to it instead of posting the image.

Do not use BZPower as an image host. Do not link to images from BZPower elsewhere without permission. This includes uploaded avatars and images as well as rank images or any assets from BZPower.

Only user Spoiler Tags for spoilers. The purpose of the tag is exactly what it says its for - spoilers. The tag is only to be used when posting a storyline spoiler, and not for a game. Should you need to organize your post, we have a "more" tag, which can be added like so:

Post only in English. Do not make entire posts in other languages or in leet. Additionally, do not use nonstandard characters, especially in usernames. The occasional word or phrase ('hola,' 'sayonara,' 'hax') is fine, but if it becomes excessive the content will be removed. See this topic for further information on leet and language use.

No "Am I Hot or Not", "show me your girlfriend." etc. threads. There are several places for that already. The occasional picture thread is OK (if we're talking about pictures of members), but this is not a dating forum.

Do not post 'brain eating links.' These include links, images, etc that spawn many popups, annoying videos, or windows that cannot be closed or even cause your computer to crash and tend to be hidden behind unassuming text.

Be considerate of transfer speeds. Do not post large images or other content that could slow down the loading of the page. HTML is currently disabled, but if it is enabled at a later date, the use of is, embedded objects, java and javascript are not welcome. Not everyone has broadband! DO NOT attempt to subvert, modify, or disrupt the normal flow or display of the forum or its content.

Do not send unsolicited Private Messages. Do not randomly send members messages asking them to vote for you, read your topic, etc. If you want to strike up a conversation, fine, but remember the rules above, be sure to be respectful and courteous.

Do not impersonate other members. Do no choose similar display names, copy the avatars, profile pictures, signatures, or other information of another member without their permission.

First things first: when it comes to the rules above, you are to obey the rulings of the Staff in all cases. If you have an issue or a question about a particular decision, contact the Staff Member who made it. If you are still not satisfied, contact an Administration. The judgment of the Administration is final in all cases.

Methods of policy enforcement:

When a member violates these guidelines action can be taken. These are some of the methods of action:

Reprimand by a Staff Member. This is just a simple talking-to. It is basically a warning not to repeat the offending action.

Proto Energy Drain. If a petty offence is committed, a member can loose some proto energy. When the proto energy runs out, a member is automatically suspended. See this topic for more information on Proto Energy.

Suspension. A break from posting because of a rule violation. Suspension can last anywhere from a few days to indefinite suspension.

Banning. Banning means that you are no longer invited to participate in the BZPower forum. Once a member has been banned it is permanent and cannot be reversed by anyone except the Administrator who performed the banning. See this topic for information on what being banned means.

Legal action. Legal action is not out of the question if property destruction occurs because of malicious behavior such as hacking transmitting viruses. You can be traced in all the actions you perform, so think twice about doing anything serious. We have no problem with throwing a mischievous 14-year-old in jail should they cause damage.

Reporting

There are a lot of posts, topics, blog entries, comments, and more made on BZPower each day. Try as they might, the BZPower Staff cannot read everything that gets posted. The good news is that the vast majority of the content posted on the site follows the above rules. For the times it doesn't, however, the Staff asks the members to help out by bringing violations to their attention.

If you see any content on the site that violates the above rules, don't hesitate to report it. Here's the proper way to report different things:

Posts - Use the Report link underneath the post.

Topics - Use the Report link underneath the topic's first post.

Avatars - Use the Report link at the bottom of the member's profile page.

Display Names - Use the Report link at the bottom of the member's profile page.

Signatures - Use the Report link at the bottom of the member's profile page.

Profile Comments - Use the Report link at the bottom of the member's profile page.